The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-12-29
NATIVITY OF CHRIST.

AAI1fll1 Vt OlhlDl.
REV. DR.. TALMAeE's CHRISTMAS
SERMON AT THE TABERNACLE.
1t Was Not Accident That Christ Was
Born in a stable-The Aneviator of
Brutal Suffering Well as the Re-
dcemer of Man.
BRooKLyN, Dec. 25.-Services today
at the Brooklyn Tabernacle were jubilant.
Professors Browne and Ali, with organ
and cDrnet, were unusually powerful,
and Mrs. Florence Rice-Knox sang three
solos. The thousands of people who
packed the church and all the approaches
seemed to join in the great chorus:
He shall reign from pole to pole
With ilmitable sway;
He shall reign when, like a scroll.
Yonder heavens have passed away.
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D. D., took
as the subject of his sermon, 'sThe Barn
and Its Surroundings" His text was
taken from Luke ii, 10: "The shepherds
said one to another, let us now go even
unto Bethlehem and see this thing which
is come to pass. DIR. Talmage said:
One thousand years of the worlds ex-
istence rolled painfully and wearily
along, and no Christ. Two thousand
years and no Christ Three thousand
years and mo Christ Four thousand
years ard no Christ 'sGive us Christ, +"
bad cried Assyrian and Persian and
Chaldean and Egyptian civilizations, but
the lips of the earth and the lips of the
sky made no answer The world had
already been aff1uent of genius. Among
poets had appeared Homer and Thespis
and Aristophanes and Sophocles and
Euripides and Alexis Eschylus, yet no
Christ to be the most poetic figure of the
centuries. Among historians had ap-
peared Herodotus and Xenophon and
Thucydides, but no Christ from whom
nll history was to date backward and
forward-B. G. and A. D.. Among con-
Querors Camillus and Manius and Regu-
ius and Xantippus and Hannibal and
Scipio and Pompey and Cesar, yet no
Chris. who was to be conqueror of earth
and heaven.
But the slow century and the slow
year and the slow month and the slow
hour at last arrived. The world had had
mathis or concerts in the morning and
vespers or concerts In the evening, but
pow it is to have concert at midnight.
The black window shutters of De-
cember night were thrown open, and
some of the best singers of a world where
they all sing stood there. and putting
back the drapery of cloud chanted
peace anthem, until all the echoes of hill
Iz1 H.
hallelujah chorus.
AT last the world has Christ, and
Just the Christ it needs. Come, let us go
into that Christmas scene as though we
had never before worshiped at the man.
ger. Here is Madonna worth looking
at wonder not that the most frequent
name in all lands and in all Christian
centuries is Mary. And there are Marys
in palaces and Marys in cabins, and
though German and French and Italian
and Spanish and English pronounce it
differently, they are all namesakes of the
one whom we find on a bed of straw
with her pale face against the soft cheek
of Christ in the night Of the Nativity
All the great painters have tried on
canvas to present Mary and her
child and the incidents of that most
famous night of the worlds history.
Raphael in three different master
pieces celebrated them Tintoret
and Guirlandjo surpassed themselves in
the "Adoration of the Magi." Corregio
needed to do nothing more than his MA
donna" to become immortal. The 'Ma-
donna of the Lily" by Leonardo da
Vinci, will kindle the admiration. Of all
ages. Murillo never won greater tri-
umph by his pencil than In his presenta-
ton of the "Holy Family" But all the
galleries of Dresden are forgotten when /
think of the small room of that gallery
containing the "Sistine Madonna" Yet
madonna" and Luke'sS Madonna, the
inspired Madonna of the Old Book, which
we had put into our handswhen we were
infants and that we hope 10 have under
our heads when we die.
Behold. in the first place, that on the
first night of Christie life God honored
the brute creation. You cannot get into
that Bethlehem bafn .without going past
the camels, the muleaS the dogs, the
oxen. The brutes of thu stable heard
the first cry of the infant&prd. Somez
the old painters represent the oxen and
camels kneeling that night before the new
born babe. And well might they kneel.
Have you ever thought that Christ came
among other things to alleviate the suf-
ferings Of the brute creationf Was it not
appropriate that he should during the
first few days and nights of his life on
earth be surrounded by the dumb beasts
whose moan and plant and believing
have for ages been prayer to God foI
the arresting of their tortures and
fhc righting of their wrongs? 1t did
not merely ''happen so' that the unin-
telligent creatures of God should have
been that night in close neighborhood
Not a kennel in all the centuries, not Q
birds nest, not worn out horse on tow
path, not herd freezing in the poorly
built COW pen, not a freight car in sum
mer time bringing the beeves TO market
without water through 1000 miles o
agony, not surgeons room witnessing
the struggles of fox or rabbit or pigeor
or dog in the horrors of vivisection bu
has an interest in the fact that Chris
wis born in stable surrounded b,
brutes lie remembers that night, ant
the prayer he heard in their pitiful moal
he will answer in the punishment o
those who maltreat the dumb brutes
They surely have as much right in thi
world as we have.
In tho first chapter of Genesis you ma.
see that they We're placed on the cart
before man was, the fish and owlcreate'
the fifth day, and the quadruped tn
morning of the sixth day, and man nc
until tile afternoon of that day. TIL
whale, the eagle, the lion, and all tn
lesser creatures of their kind were pre-
decessors of the human family. The
have the world by right of possession
They have also paid rent for the place
they occupied. What an army of de
fense all over the land are the faithft
watch dogs. And who can tell what tn
world owes to horse, and came
and OK for transportation An
robin and lark have by the cantats
a.